The two sources of morality and religion by Henri Bergson(
Book
)21
editions published
between
1935
and
1977
in
English
and held by
1,171 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In Henri Bergson's view, the world includes two opposing tendencies--life and matter. Life is dynamic, has force and will, and struggles for richness and complexity through and beyond matter. Matter is the congealed residue of creation that has already taken place and, according to the laws of nature, is in a gradual state of erosion. Morality and religion, Bergson shows in the present book, may be regarded in similar terms. They partake, on the one hand, of a static principle, combining nature's heritage and the accrual of past forms, and a dynamic principle through which morality and religion remain always in crisis, always alive to contingency and growth. In the course of this study Bergson inquires into the nature of moral obligation, into the place of religion and the purpose it has served since primitive times, into static religion and its value in preserving man from the dangers of his own intelligence; into dynamic religion or mysticism as a manifestation of the life force and a means of producing man's forward leap beyond the limits of the closed society for which nature intended him and into the open society which is the brotherhood of man. --From publisher's description

Laughter : an essay on the meaning of the comic by Henri Bergson(
Book
)23
editions published
between
1911
and
2012
in
English
and held by
667 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"It may be pointed out that the essay on Laughter originally appeared in a series of three articles in one of the leading magazines in France, the Revue de Paris. This will account for the relatively simple form of the work and the comparative absence of technical terms. It will also explain why the author has confined himself to exposing and illustrating his novel theory of the comic without entering into a detailed discussion of other explanations already in the field. He none the less indicates, when discussing sundry examples, why the principal theories, to which they have given rise, appear to him inadequate. To quote only a few, one may mention those based on contrast, exaggeration, and degradation"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Underground man by Gabriel de Tarde(
Book
)10
editions published
between
1905
and
2010
in
English
and held by
278 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Laughter : an essay on the meaning of the comic by Henri Bergson(
Book
)1
edition published
in
1999
in
English
and held by
101 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
"In this great philosophical essay, Henri Bergson explores why people laugh and what laughter means. First translated into English in 1911, this important work has long been unavailable."--BOOK JACKET. "The author of Creative Evolution and other influential works of the Twentieth Century begins with a discussion of laughter in general, focusing in the second part on laughter in situations and the comic in words, and, in the final section, on the comic in character. From Punch-and-Judy shows to Figaro, from a man falling down in the street to the great comic figures of Moliere's plays, Bergson explores the implications and full meaning of laughter, concluding ultimately that laughter is corrective: "By laughter, society avenges itself for the liberties taken with it. It would fail in its object if it bore the stamp of sympathy or kindness." Accordingly, Bergson argues, laughter serves a useful function to mankind."--Jacket

Un saint by Paul Bourget(
Book
)4
editions published
between
1907
and
1913
in
French
and held by
90 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Laughter : an essay on the meaning of the comic by Henri Bergson(
)2
editions published
in
2011
in
English
and held by
77 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
What does laughter mean?" In this pioneering, idiosyncratic 1900 work, the great philosopher traveled where few before Freud dared to venture. Examining laughter from a psychological, social, and moral perspective, Bergson finds a source of our common humanity. He revised the work while supervising this English translation

France; a bird's-eye view by Cloudesley Brereton(
Book
)2
editions published
between
1936
and
1937
in
English
and held by
16 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Laughter an essay on the meaning of the comic by Henri Bergson(
Book
)5
editions published
between
1914
and
2008
in
English
and held by
13 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
What does laughter mean? What is the basal element in the laughable? What common ground can we find between the grimace of a merry- andrew, a play upon words, an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene of high comedy? What method of distillation will yield us invariably the same essence from which so many different products borrow either their obtrusive odour or their delicate perfume? The greatest of thinkers, from Aristotle downwards, have tackled this little problem, which has a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping away and escaping only to bob up again, a pert challenge flung